Carbon Fund activated with Costa Rica in “pipeline” for $63m

Washington, DC -- 27 March 2013 – Costa Rica has become the first country to enter the “pipeline” for Carbon Fund support, triggering the much anticipated activation of the fund. Under a Carbon Fund Emissions Reduction Payment Agreement (ERPA), Costa Rica will receive a maximum of US$63 million for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The announcement was made last week at a meeting of the Carbon Fund, at which Costa Rica’s Emissions Reduction Program Idea Note (ER-PIN) was approved, progressing the country’s REDD+ efforts from the readiness phase to the demonstration phase—and closer to benefiting from performance-based REDD+ payments.

The FCPF, a major multilateral partnership housed by the World Bank, administers the Readiness Fund and the Carbon Fund. The Readiness Fund supports forest countries’ efforts to develop national REDD+ strategies and readiness, and has US$260 million in committed funds available. The Carbon Fund supports the implementation of REDD+ demonstration activities and has US$390 in committed funds available.

Also this month, during the 14th meeting of the FCPF’s Participants Committee, the REDD+ Readiness Preparation Proposals (R-PPs) of Chile, Papua New Guinea, Honduras, Thailand, Suriname and Vanuatu were reviewed and approved for funding awards of around US$3.6 million each from the Readiness Fund to advance REDD+ readiness activities.

WWF considers the FCPF as an important player in making REDD+ a reality, and values the role it plays in working with countries to progress through the phases of REDD+ readiness and implementation.

“The FCPF is realizing exciting milestones,” said Josefina Braña-Varela, policy director of WWF’s global Forest and Climate Initiative. “With Costa Rica accepted as the first country in the Carbon Fund negotiation pipeline, the Carbon Fund is now open for business and ready to provide scaled-up REDD+ finance for conservation activities resulting in quantifiable emission reductions.”

Agreement was also realized at the meeting on an assessment framework for R-Packages. This significant decision clarifies how countries will report national readiness progress, and as such, guides countries to develop R-Packages that can meet eligibility requirements for Carbon Fund financing. Representatives of other donor countries and multilaterals are now also showing interest in using the R-Package process to assess progress and funding needs of initiatives under their own purview, signalling its potential broader use outside the FCPF.

For more information about the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, visit: bit.ly/FCPFnews.

For more information on the processes of the FCPF Readiness Fund and Carbon Fund, visit: http://www.forestcarbonpartnership.org/readiness-fund